Meg writes:

I’m curious, where did the name Juniper come from? All of a sudden I’ve heard of 3 little girls being named Juniper, and I thought it was a regional thing, but then I read your post about another couple considering it… Just curious if you have any idea where this one comes from.

I’m curious, too! I think it’s like the name Cadence, which showed up practically out of NOWHERE and was suddenly EVERYWHERE.

I think it’s a combination of a few things:

1) The rhythm of Jennifer
2) The familiarity of June
3) The cuteness of Piper

I think the name Juniper hits that perfect balance of out-there and familiar, so that a much wider range of people like it than typical. I remember when I first heard the name Cadence: it was in one of the worst movies I have ever seen, and when the name was used I was ELECTRIFIED by it and immediately added it to my baby name book, which didn’t have it. It was the same with the name Juniper.

That’s a danger sign, by the way, if you want to avoid popular names. If you hear a name and it ELECTRIFIES you and you think, “WHY has no one USED this glorious NAME??”—it is very likely that a hundred thousand other people are thinking the same thought. If you mention it to a few other people and they are all electrified, too, just walk away sister.

Well, unless you’re like me and you don’t really want to use a name until it’s pretty mainstream. In that case, good news! Juniper isn’t in the Top Thousand for any year in the last 200 (source: Social Security baby name site), but I’ll bet you a dollar we’ll see it REAL SOON and that it’ll be moving up REAL FAST.

S. writes:

I’m SO thankful for your site. We are having our second boy any day now and just can’t settle on a name! We have two little girl names picked out, but of course we are having a boy! Our first little boy is named John Thomas and we call him Jack. His name comes from both sides of our family and was very easy for us to choose, we named him years before we were ever pregnant. This little guy on the other hand is still nameless!! With our complicated last name we tend to think simple names are best. I love Charlie, Henry, and Oliver; husband doesn’t love any of those. He would use Charles in a name but wouldn’t call him Charlie. Husband loves Connor, Parker, & Cooper and I’m not wild about any of them. We are closest to agreeing on Mason or William. My concern with Mason is it’s growing popularity. I really like timeless, classic names and I’m really afraid that Mason is going to be a trendy fad name which is not at all what we want. I don’t mind a name being common, like Jack, if it is also classic. William fits all of those criteria but it just feels kind of vanilla to me…nothing bad nothing great. I’d really like to feel great about our son’s name, of course! The only other requirments are that the name can’t end in T because our last name does and the first letter of our last name is S so we have to be careful about initals!
THANK YOU for any help you can offer!!!

I think the name Mason is going to be okay. I looked it up on the Social Security baby name site and although it’s true its popularity is increasing, it’s gradual not spiked—showing a name that is probably going through one of many cycles of increasing/decreasing popularity as the classics do, rather than a name that’s coming in on one wave and going out with the next as the trendies do. Since 1880 (that’s as far as the “Popularity of a Name” feature looks back), Mason has been in steady use. Its current popularity is in the 30s, like Jack. (The name John is in the teens.) If you like Mason, I think it’s great. John Thomas and Mason. Mason William, perhaps.

If William better suits your love of classic and timeless names, I am virtually certain it will grow on you even more with time. My first choice here, in fact, would be William Mason. I think that goes so nicely with John Thomas, and then you have the nicknames Jack and Will. Swoon!

Crystal writes:

I’ve been reading your blog, never thinking I would have to request help myself, but things are getting desperate. Why, you ask? Well, let me introduce you to my difficult husband. The man who likes no names. I am fairly picky myself, but have suggested at least 40 names that he’s struck down (using his extensive vocab of choice words to express his contempt). Please help us. Our baby needs a name, and I’m pretty sure my husband wants to keep from being strangled. The basics:

I’m due on April 11th with our second girl.

Our daughter’s name is Melia Quinn Cargill (muh-LEE-ah)

Names I like that have been rejected: Eliana, Eliza, Ciana, Sabine, Zadie, Cela, Lily

Name I love that he is “considering”: Juniper

The only name he actually cares for right now: Tessa

We don’t like popular names (I know, I know), but I like names of lots of different styles. I couldn’t tell you what style he prefers, but his most violent reaction is against the unisex names. He also isn’t a fan of the noun names–places, flowers, etc.

We don’t have any specific requirements about name length, certain letters, etc., and I feel like most names go with Cargill. Obviously, we haven’t even gotten anywhere near the whole middle names issue.

So I’m kind of at a loss. I feel like it is going to have to be something obscure that we haven’t come across. Any help would be wonderful.

Thanks,
Crystal

p.s. If you don’t have any naming help, maybe you know of a way I could bypass him when the birth certificate signing time comes around. I kid. Sort of. He really is a great guy–there’s just something about this naming issue…

Some people (I am looking at YOU, Paul) are truly skilled at shooting down every possibility presented to them. Saying “Fine. YOU make a list, then” can lead to some helpful discussions. When I made Paul do it, he came up with a list of, basically, 1980s cheerleaders. It was nice to be the scoffer for a change, and he was more reasonable about MY suggestions after being on the receiving end of scoff.

Well, fine. His list is one name long: Tessa. So how about a list from me?

Britta Cargill; Melia and Britta
Clarissa Cargill; Melia and Clarissa
Darcy Cargill; Melia and Darcy
Juliet Cargill; Melia and Juliet
June Cargill; Melia and June
Romy Cargill; Melia and Romy
Sylvie Cargill; Melia and Sylvie
Willa Cargill; Melia and Willa

Anyone else want to take a shot at it? And let’s have a poll over to the right. [Poll closed; see results below.]

Poll results (264 votes total):
Tessa: 59 votes, roughly 22%
Britta: 32 votes, roughly 12%
Clarissa: 11 votes, roughly 4%
Darcy: 20 votes, roughly 7%
Juliet: 41 votes, roughly 15%
June: 21 votes, roughly 8%
Romy: 29 votes, roughly 11%
Sylvie: 28 votes, roughly 11%
Willa: 23 votes, roughly 9%

Renee writes:

My husband and I are due with baby #4 in just under 2 weeks. Our three girls are named Addison Anna (called Addie), Quincy Eliza (Quin) and Micah Joy (who we call “Micah Joy” exclusively). We know we’re having a boy this time around, and are very excited. However, we are having a very difficult time finding a name. I think the problem (at least for me) is that our daughters have very strong names and it’s difficult to find a boy’s name that doesn’t strike me as, well, girly. We’ve agreed that the middle name will be Thomas–my husband’s middle name. But as for a first name, we’re pretty stuck.

I like the idea of a strong, traditional name like John, Edward or James, but I think they’re a bit too plain and don’t go well with the girls’ names. Hubby likes Harrison, Charles (Charlie) and Benjamin–but does concede that Harrison is too much like Addison, and Charlie and Ben feel too plain for the girls’ names.

The one name we had been seriously considering was Archer… and I do still like it, as does my husband…It’s strong, and I think it flows really well… Archer Thomas Lenox. The problem is, we do watch Private Practice on ABC, and Dr. Addison Montgomery has a brother named Archer. And that bothers me. Because when we gave Addie her name, it was not super trendy, but since Grey’s Anatomy, it’s become much more mainstream. And because we don’t want to seem like crazy TV fans…
….is that irrational?

I just feel like we’re completely out of ideas. Any and all suggestions would be welcomed! Thanks so much!

I do think it sounds okay when a family has a different naming style for the boys than for the girls. A family might not want to name sisters Gabriella and Taylor because of the startlingly different styles, but I think it’s okay to have a sister Gabriella and a brother Tyler. Something about the gender line makes it okay to mix. So if you wanted to have a John, Edward, James, Charles, or Benjamin, I think those all work great. In fact, since your girls’ names are all androgynous, a classic and unmistakable boy name might be just the thing.

But if they seem too plain, I love Archer. It’s a great name; it’s similar in style to your girls’ names; it’s great with Thomas Lenox; and you both really like it. Let’s put a poll over to the right to see how strong the Addison/Archer connection is. [Poll closed; see results below.] I wouldn’t have thought of it, especially with several siblings separating the two names, but I’d be interested to see if it pops into other people’s minds.

Poll results (335 votes total) for the question “Would you have thought of the Addison/Archer connection?”:
Yes: 54 votes, roughly 16%
Only if it were pointed out to me: 51 votes, roughly 15%
No: 80 votes, roughly 24%
Who?: 150 votes, roughly 45%
(No plus Who: 230 votes, roughly 69%)

Maggie writes:

We really need you and your reader’s help!! Our baby is arriving any day now (officially due next Friday) and my dear husband recently decided he no longer likes the boy’s name we agreed on. And it took us literally the whole nine months to find one name we could both live with, so we’re back at square one. We don’t know baby’s gender, but if it’s a girl, she will be either Julia, Sophia, or Laurel. We’ve had these names forever, we love them all, it’s just a matter of seeing which one “fits” her once she’s here. Girls names are easy!

BUT if baby is a boy, we have a problem. The name we had agreed on was Theodore, intending to call him Teddy when he’s little and letting him decide once he’s older whether he wants to be Theo, Teddy, or Theodore. My husband has suddenly decided it’s not masculine enough, although he would still consider it for a middle name. It was not my first choice, but I was happy enough with it.

My top picks for boys were Alan and Jonathan. Husband’s top picks were John and Matthew. We could both live with Alan or Matthew from the other’s list, but don’t love them. (And Matthew sort of rhymes with the last syllable of our last name, which sounds funny to me.) As you can see, we partly agree on the John thing, but I dislike one syllable first names — no offense to anyone — and so even if we call him John for short, would like a longer formal first name. Are there any other longer names that have the nickname John? Husband will not consider Jonathan because we already have two immediate family members with the name, even though our son would have a different last name than the other two. The other problem is one side of the family is Greek, and would call John “Yanni” which I don’t think I can handle. I really really really don’t like the sound of Yanni, which makes me reluctant to use John. Our last name is long and Greek and ends with an “ew” sound, which means we want an recognizably male, simple spelling and easy pronounciation first name, nothing new-fangled or creative.

Other names we cannot use because of family: Robert, Andrew, Alexander, Stephen, David, James, Benjamin, Lucas, William, Nicholas. Names I liked but DH refused: Nathaniel, Christopher, Julius, Lawrence.

Any ideas for us? Thanks so much!

Another name that could be shortened to John is Johnson. My brother’s dorm floor had a secret pet kitten, and they named him Johnson, and I thought that was the cutest name EVER—until someone explained to me that it was an, er, nickname. For something boys have and girls don’t, if you follow me. And according to my brother, EVERYONE knows this, but I did not. Apparently boys know this. And also, maybe boys need a naming blog devoted to their Special Interest? Because they have an awful lot of names for It.

Johnston is slightly less risky. But it sounds like the “Yanni” thing rules out John names for you guys.

And oh dear heavens, look at all the good basic boy names you can’t use for family-already-used-them reasons! No wonder you’re stuck! Here’s a list of some good basic boy names NOT on the veto list:

Caleb
Daniel
Edward (could still use Ted/Teddy, or Ned)
Edmund (could still use Ted/Teddy, or Ned)
Eric
Ethan
Evan
Henry
Ian
Isaac
Jacob (same J/Y problem, though?)
Joshua (same J/Y problem, though?)
Michael
Nathan (maybe too close to Nathaniel)
Samuel
Thomas

I’m leaning toward Evan: it’s a distant relative of the name John; it has the rhythm of Alan; it’s simple to spell and pronounce, etc. Evan Matthew. Evan Theodore. But I also really like Caleb. Caleb Theodore. Caleb Matthew. Caleb John.

In fact, I like lots of these. Michael Alan. Edmund Matthew. Daniel John. Edward Alan. Eric John. Ian Matthew.

Which of these virtue names do you like best?

Amity
Charity
Faith
Grace
Honor
Hope
Mercy
Patience
Verity

Poll is over to the right. [Poll closed; see results below.]

Poll results (407 votes total):
Amity: 16 votes, roughly 4%
Charity: 9 votes, roughly 2%
Faith: 52 votes, roughly 13%
Grace: 197 votes, roughly 48%
Honor: 28 votes, roughly 7%
Hope: 58 votes, roughly 14%
Mercy: 7 votes, roughly 2%
Patience: 2 votes, roughly 0%
Verity: 38 votes, roughly 9%